Teaching Students With Autism: Strategies for Success

DETAILS

Just 20 years ago, we didn't see students with autism in our classrooms. But today, we teach children with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome right alongside their neurotypical peers. Reaching and teaching these students requires a delicate balancing act: understanding how their brains are wired, helping them turn challenges into opportunities, and learning to enjoy the rich perspective they bring to the classroom.

If you've ever had a student who blurted out in class, screamed when someone patted his or her shoulder, or rocked back and forth in the chair, you'll appreciate the lessons ahead. We'll discover the neurobiology behind these disorders and the way it affects students' behavior, learning, and thinking. Most important, you'll learn creative, easy, low-budget strategies to help these kids succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Develop the skills to counter these students' social awkwardness, sensory sensitivities, meltdowns, problems with homework completion, language reciprocity issues, and violent fixations. Even if you don't have a student with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome in your class this year, these strategies will equip you to deal with any student who exhibits these characteristics on a regular basis.

Note: To receive 25 hours of instruction in the State of Oregon, please ensure your school is eligible to issue professional development units, and that the course is approved by your professional learning coordinator.

SYLLABUS

A new session of each course opens each month, allowing you to enroll whenever your busy schedule permits!

How does it work? Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.

Keep in mind that the interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes 2 weeks after each lesson is released, so you’re encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The Final Exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the Final Exam has been released, you will have 2 weeks plus 10 days to complete the Final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Week 1

Lesson 01 - Meet Your Students With Autism

Wednesday

You may have already taught students with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome, but have you taken the time to get to know them? Today we'll discover how their brains are wired differently, the ways they behave, and smart strategies to make the most of the opportunity to teach these kids.

Lesson 02 - Understand the Common Characteristics of HFA/AS

Friday

Now that we've met our students, in this lesson we'll develop an understanding of the characteristics they often display in our classrooms. From trouble handling change to difficulty with social interaction, language processing, and distractions, we'll discover how these characteristics shape students' worldview and ability to perform in academic settings.

Week 2

Lesson 03 - Discover How Your Students Think

Wednesday

Did you know that most students with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome are visual thinkers? Today we'll spend some time determining how these students process information so we can tailor our lesson plans to their preferred learning and thinking styles.

Lesson 04 - Nurture Students' Social Skills

Friday

In this lesson, you'll discover how students with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome struggle socially. We'll talk about the extent of the problem, some of the causes, and its very real impact. Then we'll discuss some nonverbal and verbal exercises we can do in class to lessen these students' social anxiety.

Week 3

Lesson 05 - Encourage Language Reciprocity

Wednesday

Today we'll explore how students with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome converse and why it's so incredibly hard for them to keep conversations going. Then we'll talk about a graphic organizer that is very helpful when students need to translate between their thoughts and ours. Finally, we'll cover how to write social stories that help kids understand what's expected of them.

Lesson 06 - Work With Sensory Sensitivities

Friday

In this lesson, we're going to examine why students with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome have such delicate sensory sensitivities. Then we'll discuss two strategies for helping them reclaim control over daily experiences that once seemed quite intimidating. Both the strategies we'll discuss are visual ones, and they're wonderfully easy and effective.

Week 4

Lesson 07 - Nurture Special Interests

Wednesday

Students with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome are often "little professors" who have highly specialized interests and fixations. How do we direct these gifts for math or language or science into appropriate academic channels? With visual strategies that help students link their interests to the broader world. You'll learn the strategies today!

Lesson 08 - Encourage Homework Completion

Friday

This may just be your favorite lesson in the course! Every teacher I know is looking for new and exciting strategies to get students to do their homework. Today you'll learn how to engage students with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome in their studies and link their interests with meaningful learning.

Week 5

Lesson 09 - Counter Runaway Emotions and Meltdowns

Wednesday

What if you had an emotional meltdown every single day? Would you be excited to get out of bed and do it all over again? Probably not. Many students with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome are prone to meltdowns and tantrums that derail their focus and take up precious classroom time. In this lesson, you'll learn how to turn these charged encounters into more positive learning experiences.

Lesson 10 - Redirect Violent Fixations

Friday

No one likes to be teased! Sadly, many students with high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome are bullied or made fun of on a daily basis. Because this makes them so fearful and frustrated, they often fixate on objects of power or violence—fixations that can have very serious consequences in today's world. Today we'll delve into how to channel these frustrations into more appropriate feelings.

Week 6

Lesson 11 - Foster Attentiveness

Wednesday

Imagine what it would be like if your mind raced all the time, darting from thought to thought at warp speed. It would be pretty hard to pay attention to anything, wouldn't it? In this lesson, we'll look at ways to help students focus on our lessons and learn a little something in the process. Here's a hint: Visuals help!

Lesson 12 - Plan for the Future

Friday

In our final lesson, we'll talk about smart ways to prepare students for life beyond our four walls. It's never too early to start thinking about ways to encourage students to reach their highest potential in future classes, jobs, and social roles. After all, isn't that why we chose to be teachers in the first place?

INSTRUCTOR

A veteran educator, Ellen Arnold has been a reading specialist at the primary level, a social studies and reading teacher at the middle school level, and a special educator at the high school level. Ellen has spent years helping learners unlock their potential. She holds a bachelor's degree in secondary education and a master's degree in special education—credentials that prepared her to see each student for his or her greatest strengths. Ellen has taught hundreds of students and teachers the secrets to creating highly effective classrooms.

REVIEWS

I thought your course was really good - both informative and practical. I'm recommending it to my district special ed director as a course which would be really useful to any teacher - regular or special education - who wants to develop a good understanding of AS, and strategies to work with students who have AS…I appreciate how responsive to and thoughtful about the questions from the other students you were, and how thoughtful many of the questions and comments by the other students were. I'm glad I took your course.

I thoroughly enjoyed this online experience and hope to take another class under Dr. Ellen Arnold in the future. I found her approach to be personal, professional, effective, and pertinent. I am much better prepared to work with HFA students and very grateful for the concrete example and tried and true strategies provided by Dr. Arnold. She is an excellent instructor!

This was a perfect course for me. Each lesson was simple and easy to understand - I was able to focus on the goals of each lesson and didn't get bogged down with too much information at once. I don't have a lot of experience teaching students with Asperberger's and this was just right for my level of need. The writing was clear and easy to understand. The assignments and discussions helped so much in cementing my understanding. And the best part of all was that my student directly benefited from several of the suggested techniques. Our year is going so well, and I feel he is getting what he needs because of this course. Thank you so much. I have recommended this course to several people and truly hope they will take it.

Ellen It has been my privilege to learn from you. This has definitely been one of the most beneficial classes of my thirty year teaching career. Thank you for so many wonderful strategies and more importantly the wealth of information that is going to strengthen my teaching methods. This has been an enjoyable 12 lessons. I hope you continue so that teachers, students, and parents can experience a positive change in the lives of AS/HFA students.

This course has been extremely enlightening and helpful. I like the way it has been laid out. At first, I did not like having to wait for the next lessons to be released, but can see the rationale for that. As my first online course, I found it easy to maneuver and keep up with assignments. The quizzes helped me synthesize what I was learning.

I found this course beneficial not only as a special education teacher, but also as parent to a child with autism. This class offered numerous ideas for the classroom, as well as ones I am able to implement at home. I encourage anyone who works with a child with autism to definitely take this course.

Thank you for all of your work in this course! I really loved how involved you were with the learning process. It felt like you were right there guiding us through it, and the discussion area was great! I loved being able to get feedback and advice from you and the other classmates...I also feel more prepared to make positive changes for my own family, as well as future students.

I can honestly say due to a previous assignment that we did I am constantly evaluating the classroom and what can be distracting...I find that when a child is exhibiting challenging behavior or is off I am now in the habit of looking through his/her eyes to see what happened before, after and what could be "seeing" them off in the environment.

This is the best course I've ever taken. I can truly tell that you have the experience and love for kids within the autistic spectrum. The course has given me as a mom positive real life techniques to enhance my son's learning and how he thinks about himself. I hope every teacher takes this course and I highly recommend it to any parent.

Thank you so much for your time and your thoughts! I love your ideas. I have just finished your course and I must say, it has been wonderful...I am new to the world of Special Needs, and I feel that I have walked away from your course with at least 10 new tools that I can use to help both my students and the teachers I work with.